Anna Gentry
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SANTA CATALINA HALL (Polytechnic) Mesa, AZ 85212
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Mail code: 2780Campus: Poly
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As a musical theatre historian and professional performer, Anna Wheeler Gentry made her Lincoln Center [New York] concert debut in 2003 on the concert series Autumn in New York: Vernon Duke at 100. In April 2011, she presented her research and concert performance entitled “Vladimir Dukelsky: Russian Undertones with American Overtones” during the Prokofiev Festival at the P. I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Music, Moscow, Russia (broadcast on Radio Russia).
Focusing on the restoration and preservation of historic masterpieces within the American musical theatre genre, Gentry's projects have garnered support from the American Multi-Cinema Foundation, Yip Harburg Foundation, American Music Research Center, and the Society for American Music. She is a fellow with the American Music Research Center (AMRC) at the University of Colorado-Boulder, a member of Southwest Liederkranz, as well as [American] Actors Equity, and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
Gentry's research has been published by Johns Hopkins, Gale, McFarland, Continuum UK, Bloomsbury Methuen, Music Library Association, and others. She is editor of, and contributor to the book In Search of Inspiration: Interviews with Notable Choral Conductors (GIA, 2021), and author of Politics on Broadway: Controversy in Red and Black (Great River Learning, 2013).
As a soprano soloist and crossover artist, she has performed operatic roles (Mozart, Britten, Gilbert & Sullivan, Persichetti), musical theatre (Sondheim, Bacharach, Gershwin, Lerner and Loewe, Rodgers and Hammerstein), as well as concert works (Stravinsky, Charpentier, Saint-Saëns, Brahms, Haydn) in cities across the country. As a stage director and production dramaturg, she has done work for the Phoenix Symphony, University of Colorado's College of Music, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Black Theatre Troupe, Arizona State University, University of Alabama, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival and the former ASU Sundome. Gentry has studied voice with Michael Cousins of the Metropolitan Opera, Arlene Augér at the Aspen Music School, and Randi Marrazzo of the Opera Company of Philadelphia, coached repertoire with Tom Jaber at the Academy of Vocal Arts, conducting with George Lynn, and studied jazz piano and improvisation with Bob Arnold of the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
Gentry is the executive director of the newly founded Boulder Philharmonic Chorus, in Boulder, Colorado.
- Ph.D. studies. Arizona State University
- M.A. University of Missouri-Kansas City
- Voice studies. Aspen Music School
- B.A. Loretto Heights College
American Film Musical History and Performance
The Great American Songbook, including composers, lyricists, and performers of these works
Broadway Musical Theatre and it's history (including European antecedents)
American performing arts and broadcast mediums as affected by:
- The McCarthy Era, early Communism in America, controversies based in historic fact
- WWII
- The Great Depression
The Great Revue Period (1930s), American Musical Theatre (Stage and Film) lyricists and composers, especially:
- Vernon Duke - ne Vladimir Dukelsky (composer and music historian),
- E. Y. Harburg (lyricist and librettist)
- Harold Adamson (lyricist)
- Harold Arlen (song composer)
Harlem Renaissance - singers/actors, dancers, composers, lyricists, conductors, musicians and producers
Women creative artists of the genre
- Women lyricists and composers of the Great American Songbook (Dorothy Fields, Betty Comden, Ann Ronell, Kay Swift, Dana Suesse, Maria Grever, and others)
- Women performers of the Great American Songbook [including Ethel Waters (1896-1977), Helen Morgan (1900-1941), Billie Holiday (1915-1959), Dinah Shore (1916-1994), Jo Stafford (1917-2008), Lena Horne (1917-2010), Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996), Judy Garland (1922-1969), Doris Day (b. 1924)]
Symphony conductor Leopold Stokowski and the women who influenced and promoted his career including:
- Mary Dehon Polk
- Olga Samaroff
- Geraldine Farrar
- Mary Curtis Bok
- Evangeline Johnson
- Mary Binney Montgomery
- Greta Garbo
- Lucile Miller
Fellow, American Music Research Center (AMRC), Boulder, Colorado (2012)
Southwest Liederkranz (2006-present)
Society for American Music (Chair, Music Theatre Interest Group, 2002-2009)
Books
- In Search of Inspiration: Interviews with Notable Choral Conductors (GIA Publications, Chicago, IL, 2021)
- Walk a Little Faster - original 1932 Broadway Musical Revue manuscript and analysis: Vernon Duke, composer; E. Y. Harburg, lyricist (Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, forthcoming).
- Politics on Broadway: Controversy in Red and Black (Great River Technologies, Dubuque, IA, 2013).
- American Lyricist E. Y. Harburg: Origins and Evolution of Russian and Yiddish Influences, graduate thesis (Kansas City, MO: University of Missouri-Kansas City, OCLC No. 49406323)
Book Chapters/Articles (invited to contribute)
- "Edgar Yipsel Harburg" in Continuum's Twentieth-Century Companion to Theatre (Continuum UK/Bloomsbury, 2022).
- "Stanley Kauffman" in Continuum's Twentieth-Century Companion to Theatre (Continuum UK/Bloomsbury, 2022).
- "Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake" in Continuum's Twentieth-Century Companion to Theatre (Continuum UK/Bloomsbury, 2022).
- "James Lapine" in Continuum's Twentieth-Century Companion to Theatre (Continuum UK/Bloomsbury, 2022).
- "Larry Gelbart" in Continuum's Twentieth-Century Companion to Theatre (Continuum UK/Bloomsbury, 2022).
- "Sheldon Harnick" in Continuum's Twentieth-Century Companion to Theatre (Continuum UK/Bloomsbury, 2022).
- "Twentieth-Century Women Choreographers: Refining and Redefining the Showgirl Image" in Women in American Musical Theatre (McFarland, June 2008).
- "Harold Adamson" in American Song Lyricists 1920-1960 Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 265 (Gale, 2003).
Presentations
- "Vive la différence! Tartuffe as an Opera" KC MOlière: 400 in 2022 Festival, Kansas City, MO
- "Urinetown, the musical: Subliminal parallels with Brecht and Weill's Three Penny Opera"
- "George Lynn: A Life Lived in Music"
- "Women of the Great American Songbook"
- "WWII Patriotism or Propaganda?: American Romanticization of Communism by means of Penning Pro-Soviet Songs"
- "E. Y. Harburg: Lyrics Sort of Grandish"
- "Bach on Broadway: Baroque Contexts and Plots within Broadway Musicals"
- "Vladimir Dukelsky [né Vernon Duke]: Russian Undertones with American Overtones"
- "April in Paris (1932): The Confluence of Russian and Yiddish Songwriting Influences to Create an American Standard on Broadway"
Journal Articles
- Gentry, Anna Wheeler. "George Lynn: A Life Lived in Music." Journal of the American Music Research Center (AMRC), Boulder, CO: University of Colorado Press (January 2016) https://www.colorado.edu/amrc/sites/default/files/attached-files/amrc_p…
- Gentry, Anna Wheeler. "Choral Effects in Two Works by John Adams" in Tactus, Western Division Journal for the American Choral Directors Association (Spring 2011, Volume 35, Issue 3, p7, 9). http://acda.org/western/2011Spring.pdf
- Gentry, Gregory R., and Anna Wheeler Gentry. "Kirke Mechem: Master Craftsman" in The Conductor's Podium, the Newsletter for the Illinois State Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association.
- Gentry, Anna Wheeler. "Review of 3 DVD Set Broadway: The American Musical" directed by Michael Kantor (Paramount-PBS Home Video, 2005). NOTES: The Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association, Middleton, WI: Music Library Association.
- Gentry, Anna Wheeler. "Review of DVD Stormy Weather:The Music of Harold Arlen (Bullfrog Films, 2003). NOTES: The Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association, Middleton, WI: Music Library Association.
- Gentry, Anna Wheeler. King Hedley II: Dramaturgical and educational Study Guide regarding the tragedy, playwright August Wilson and his canon of 10 plays dealing with the 20th-century African-American experience. Black Theatre Troupe, Phoenix, AZ.
- Gentry, Anna Wheeler. "Ain't Misbehavin': Dramaturgical and educational Study Guide regarding Fats Waller, Harlem Renaissance, and Harlem Stride Piano Idiom." Black Theatre Troupe, Phoenix, AZ.
- Gentry, Anna Wheeler. "Tiomkin and Hairston: Composers and Choral Collaborators." University of Alabama's Descant (newsletter U of A's chapter American Choral Directors Association).
Panels Chaired
- "Interview with Bert Fink, Senior Vice President of Communications for the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization," Society for American Music national conference, 2007
- Poster Session Coordinator: College Music Society Pacific Southwest Conference, 2006
- "Contemporary and Emerging Musical Theatre Scholarship," Society for American Music national conference, 2005
- "Patriotism in the American Musical," Society for American Music national conference, 2003
Courses
2025 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
2024 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
2024 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
2023 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
2023 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
2022 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
2022 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
2021 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
2021 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
2020 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
2020 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
| ENG 467 | American Film Musicals |
- "Vive la différence! Tartuffe as an Opera" (KC MOlière: 400 in 2022 Festival, Kansas City, MO)
- "Urinetown, the musical: Subliminal parallels with Brecht and Weill's Three Penny Opera" (Regis University, Denver, CO)
- "Bach on Broadway: Baroque Contexts and Plots within Broadway Musicals" (Boulder Bach Festival, Boulder, CO)
- "George Lynn: A Life Lived in Music" (George Lynn Centenary Symposium, American Music Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO)
- "Women of the Great American Songbook" (Concert Lecture/Performance, ASTER Women's Chamber Choir, Broomfield, CO)
- "WWII Patriotism or Propaganda?: American Romanticization of Communism by means of Penning Pro-Soviet Songs" (1: Long Beach International Indie Film, Media, and Music Festival, Long Beach, CA; 2: Song, Stage and Screen Conference, University of Missouri, Kansas City, MO)
- "Vladimir Dukelsky [né Vernon Duke]: Russian Undertones with American Overtones" (Prokofiev Festival, P. I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Moscow, RU)
- "Walk a Little Faster: History and Reconstruction of Vernon Duke/E. Y. Harburg's 1932 Musical Revue" (Concert Lecture/Performance, part of the concert series Autumn in New York: Vernon Duke at 100, Lincoln Center, New York, NY)
- Twentieth-Century Women Choreographers: Refining and Redefining the Showgirl Image" (The Broadway Musical: 1920-2020, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY)
- "E. Y. Harburg: Lyrics Sort of Grandish" (Concert Lecture/Performance, Society for American Music Conference, Charleston, SC)
- "Contemporary and Emerging Scholarship" (Moderator and Chair, Music Theatre Interest Group, Society for American Music Conference, Eugene, OR)
- "'April in Paris' (1932): The Confluence of Russian and Yiddish Songwriting Influences to Create an American Standard on Broadway" (College Music Society Conference, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ)
Fellow, American Music Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
Founding Member, Southwest Liederkranz (AZ, CO, UT, NV, CA)
Chair, Music Theatre Interest Group, Society for American Music (2004-2008)
Actors Equity Association (inactive)